Posts Tagged With: review

On the 28th of January, I went to go watch UBC Theatre’s production of The Bacchae (2.1). As I have never seen a Greek play, I was intrigued to see how it differed from more contemporary plays (i.e., 19th-20th century works). The style is radically different, to say the least. Main page for the production here.

May the wrath of Dionysus fall upon you. Source: UBC Theatre

The first thing I learned is that Greek plays appear to be… very expository. Taking a look at the scripts of both the original and the modernised version, characters (even the chorus) have obscenely long monologues. Most of it tends to be flowery language, text that would most certainly be cut down in more modern plays. I personally dislike this style as it was more “tell” than “show.” At times, it felt more like a sermon than an engaging story. I do not come to plays to be lectured, but to be amused and feel; from those latter two things do I learn.

The re-imagination seemed to be both more philosophical and more ideological. In the original, Dionysus was a flawed, vengeful character that wished to be recognised as a god–specifically a son of Zeus, and in order to do so, carried out a scheme to kill his cousin, Pentheus, the king of Thebes as any worship of Dionysus was banned. The remake featured a Dionysus that seemed to be divorced from reality and challenged one’s perception of where masculinity is demarcated from femininity by dressing up in conventional woman’s garb and near the end of the show, swapped for something more masculine. The incarnation in the remake appears more passive and less overtly confrontational though one could argue that Pentheus and his aides got riled up by his influence. This is one of my pet peeves when someone is making an ideological argument; creating a character that is hot-headed and generally unlikeable (the strawman) and another which is more rational and presents his or her arguments in a cool, logical manner. The way in which the characters are portrayed subliminally pushed to make the viewer feel more sympathetic to Dionysus rather than Pentheus.

Charles Mee, the playwright of the remake, decided to adapt it to make it more relatable with a modern audience. I question his success in doing so, as I felt the nuances behind the modernised touches were too subtle at first and required the audience to put effort in analysing his choices; these touches did not serve to push the plot forward or meaningfully enrich the setting–the setting was plain enough as is, and a time and location did not really come to mind–they only displayed a veil of symbolism that viewers who were curious enough to analyse it at a deeper level would appreciate to some degree. For example, the suits that the “civilised” characters (Pentheus and his aides) wore were contrasting solid black and white, forcing morality, gender, and other concepts into binary systems without any middle ground and using non-vibrant colours invokes a sense of routine, staleness, and lack of expression. The clothes hugged the body snugly (or rather, not loose) and covered most of it (save for the head and hands), acting as a shell that restricts the wearer’s expression. Dionysus and the women, on the other hand, wore less restrictive clothing, which translates to freer expression of self and room for self-improvement. Lively colours (tangerine and earthen colours) invoked senses of nature and creativity. Near the end of the show where the climax occurs one of the women appears to be wearing a long, red, wooden erect phallus, something that I believe was used to question the requirements of gender.

In the second half of the show, Pentheus decides, at Dionysus’ suggestion, to sneak into the abode of the wild women in order to ready himself for an assault against them. In order to so, he decides to dress up as a woman to blend in. What happens in the span of 2 minutes is Pentheus stripping out of his suit and putting on an elegant evening dress, high heels, and a wig. I asked at the talkback after the show the significance of choosing that costume and the costume designer replied that it represented Pentheus’ idea of how the ideal woman looks and behaves. It is also around this time that Dionysus swaps for more masculine clothing, maintaining a duality in gender presentation on the stage.

As Pentheus eavesdrops on the women, he grows to become more sympathetic to their thoughts. Throughout most of this scene, he remains silent, an observer, much like an initiate in a movement.When he is discovered, he is quickly accepted as he listens to more of their tales. By the end, he has successfully been converted and he is accepted into the group. Eventually only he and one other woman, Agave, remain on centre stage. As Pentheus lies on Agave’s lap and is gently stroked, his wig comes off and she flies into a rage that a man has managed to breach her inner sanctum and proceeds to kill him. The twist is revealed when Cadmus, Pentheus’ grandfather, enters the scene and woefully divulges to Agave that she had killed her son. The scene in both the original and the remake are similar in that she denies not knowing who her kill was (in the original, a lion; in the remake, an imposter) before coming to realise that she had just committed filicide. Where it differs is the addition of a third party in the remake: Dionysus, who while soft-spoken, begins to embody the incarnation of the original. He appears unseen by all the other characters as he mocks the lengths to which humans will try and deny that which lies before them; for example, the weeping Agave cradling her child’s head while reciting to herself, “it’s only a dream, it’s only a dream…”

I will attempt to tread carefully in this next section, as it has to do with comparing similarities between the reaction of Agave to Pentheus’ reveal to some members of (typically political or ideological) movements, more recently noted in those that purport to be morally superior. While many branches at a local level typically don’t have these incidents occur, there grows a disturbing trend to dismiss and alienate interested, potential members not necessarily because of the opinions they hold and espouse but by traits that are near impossible to change. Just like Agave’s violent reaction to discovering Pentheus’ identity, some members of these movements discount arguments from others (regardless of whether or not it supports their views) by virtue of their sex, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.

In terms of a work that seeks to explore the different sides of humanity (the “structured, civilised” side versus the “instinctual, wild” side) it is quite thought-provoking; when evaluating it as a work to entertain, it does not come off as strong. Perhaps if the characters were less of a voicepiece for the author and given more individual personality, the script would have entertained better while teaching at the same time.

This episode focuses on Will and Anastasia’s entry into Wonderland. It begins from where Will and Anastasia are about to jump through the portal that he stole from Maleficent. Before they jump in, they are stopped by Anastasia’s mother, who cautions Anastasia that “love” won’t be enough for her new life with Will. It’s interesting to see the parallels between Anastasia and Regina from the parent series: cold, overbearing, poor ambitious mothers who coax their daughters into marrying royalty. However, whereas Cora (Regina’s mother) managed to use magic to force Regina into her eventual fate as the Evil Queen, Anastasia’s mother just lets her escape to Wonderland, but cautions her that “love won’t be enough,” and expects her daughter to return (with a bucket of water). At first, the couple seems to be happy by themselves, though their desires for riches eventually overcame as they crash a ball held by the king of the realm (mother does know best, doesn’t she). Formulating a plan to steal the crown jewels, Anastasia gets caught by the king himself, who offers to make her his queen and overlook her burglary. How the king meets his demise has yet to be seen.

Meanwhile, in the “present,” Anastasia coaxes Alice to the Great Divide to acquire magic dust on the other side that can point her in the direction of Jafar’s lair. Alice is still savvy enough to ask why the Red Queen herself didn’t go across and fetch it herself, to which she responds with an “[Alice’s] heart is the purest of them all,” noted by Anastasia’s betrayal to Will and lingering regret evidenced by her giving Alice a look as the girl mentions her love for Cyrus. After falling into the chasm after crossing an invisible bridge, Alice comes face-to-face with a younger version of herself that preys on the hatred she has towards Anastasia by reminding her that it is her fault that Cyrus is gone. The apparition then summons Anastasia into the rift and gives Alice the chance to kill her for all the suffering she has been put through. Alice, being the bastion of incorruptible goodness that she is, puts down her blade and spares the Queen’s life. The being then congratulates Alice and gives her the magic dust. When the two women climb back up from the chasm, Anastasia promptly takes the pouch of magic dust and leaves Alice, but not before the latter had taken some for herself to be guided towards Cyrus. Anastasia returns to the garden where Will had been petrified and uses the dust to cure him and leaving as he gets de-stoned, as if she feels that she cannot face him yet despite her unfaltering love.

Walter Bishop’s back and doing some more kooky stuff. Source: Carla Day

The episode 2 weeks ago focused on separating Ichabod’s life from that of the Horseman’s. To do so, Abbie (per the urging of Katrina while in the middle of driving) must find a man known as the Sin Eater to purge the sin linking Ichabod to Death. This becomes a problem when he gets abducted by Freemasons (led by James Frain, no less!), who then proceed to determine if he is truly Ichabod Crane by referring to an eyewitness account from his wife. Once they have ascertained his identity, they ask him to kindly kill himself to stop the Horseman.

This episode focuses on Ichabod’s backstory, to the time where he first meets Katrina while on a mission to interrogate freed slave Arthur Bernard, using time-tested methods such as repeated bludgeoning while the subject is tied to a chair. Ichabod does not follow orders blindly, however; he is never the one to actually lay a hand on Bernard, and feels that the public hangings cross a line. He makes a few complaints about the treatment of the townspeople to Colonel Tarleton, who implies that Ichabod will get the noose if he does not follow orders. Even though it may have been in the 18th century, I highly doubt that disobeying orders would warrant the death penalty; if that’s the case then the demon masquerading as Tarleton does not blend in very well.

Ichabod’s sin is revealed to be self-inflicted: while taking Bernard out into the woods to dispose of the ex-slave, he decides to spare the man’s life, but not before Tarleton catches up and dispatches Bernard himself, Ichabod blaming himself for the events that have transpired. The commander then confronts Ichabod and wounds him before vanishing. Afterwards, Ichabod makes his way to Katrina’s abode and utters the last few words that Bernard told him: “Order from Chaos” to have her accept him to fight for the Americans. It takes the manifestation of Arthur Bernard while Ichabod is meeting with the Sin Eater–now known to us as Henry Parrish–to finally forgive himself and let the man literally eat blood that is representative of the sin of guilt. This probably won’t be the only time we’ll see him around.

After a week’s hiatus, the denizens of Wonderland are back to continue their little chess game.

(Ex-)Lovers reunited. Source: Seriable.com

Following the trend from its parent series, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has given the chief villain a justifiable motive for their start of darkness. Jafar is revealed to be an illegitimate son of the Sultan of Agrabah whom has been abandoned and falls under the sorceress Amara’s tutelage. Like Regina, he was unwilling to take the life of an innocent at first, but with some prodding from his mentor, that habit was slowly forced out of him. The clear difference is that Amara is enamoured by Jafar (of course, seeing as how she took him in at a young age (when he was conspicuously a boy, giving off a creepy implication of sex-flipped wife husbandry) during the time they’ve spent together compared to Rumplestiltskin finding Regina (and her mother’s) antics amusing. Unlike Rumpelstiltskin, Amara ends up getting turned into Jafar’s iconic serpent staff.

Meanwhile, a new character is introduced–Elizabeth (who also goes by Lizard)–who like Anastasia has run with Will in the past. Whether or not she is an original character remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Alice has reached an ultimatum during the escape from the Red Queen: she uses her first wish to bind her life to Will’s to prevent Jafar from killing him. This doesn’t stop him from turning Will into stone, however, and that probably means we won’t be seeing Michael Socha for a while now.

I still find Alice to not be as interesting as the other characters in the series, particularly Anastasia. Will, for the most part of his capture, taunts his ex-lover to kill him, something that she has been pressured to do by Jafar. In fact, the few close-up shots of her show her frustration breaking through her stony facade. It is interesting to note that the Tweedles answer not only to her but also to the sorcerer from Agrabah; one could make the argument that the servants are being shared among the two, but there should have been a sequence where they answer to Anastasia before Jafar.

A key character from Alice’s adventures makes an appearance in this episode.

Who are you? Source: OUaT Wiki

Jafar and the Red Queen are trying to make Alice use up her wishes so that Cyrus won’t be bound to her anymore by creating situations where she has no choice but to use them. Using Cyrus’ reactions as a guide, the villains finally decide on releasing a Bandersnatch, which takes the form of a wild boar with an incredible sense of smell.

Following the discovery that the bottle has been stolen, the Knave suggests using the Forget-Me-Knot, a rope with a loop that acts as a magic lens with the power to see past events in any viewed area. The problem? It is in the possession of the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, who put out a bounty on his head for not honouring his debt, further illustrating the impact that the Knave has had on Wonderland that we haven’t seen yet. The caterpillar then confides in the two adventurers that the knot has been taken by the Grendel, a monster so terrible that adventurers never returned. The Knave then sees an opportunity to settle the debt: retrieve the knot from the Grendel and give it back to the Caterpillar, who agrees, seeing as whatever outcome occurs benefits him in some way: if the Knave fails to retrieve the knot, the Caterpillar is rid of him once and for all; if the Knave succeeds in bringing the knot back, the Caterpillar can use it for his own gain; if the Knave gets the rope and runs off with it, the Caterpillar will take glee in having his head (still conscious, and a callback to Jefferson’s decapitation in Once Upon a Time) as an ornament.

At this point of seeing the portrayal of a pivotal character I realised that there was a compromise during the show: the mystique, logical arguments and philosophy of Lewis Carrol has been replaced by backstory and action. I don’t really mind the reimagining of the characters, but it is something that made Alice and her adventures what they were.

When Alice and the Knave reach the Grendel’s house (and subsequently captured and tied to be the beast’s next meal), it is revealed that the monster is really just a deformed man who is using the knot to hang onto the past and his deceased lover. The Knave tries to empathise with the Grendel by mentioning his ex-lover Anastasia to no avail. It’s at this point Alice seemingly accomplishes the villains’ plans in getting her to use her wishes; just not in the way they had intended. Alice uses them to cut through the ropes, just in time as the Bandersnatch arrives. After dispatching of the pig the Grendel decides to let go of the past and relinquishes the rope. A while later, Jafar and the Queen stop by for a visit, and after promising to “reunite [the Grendel] with his wife,” the sorcerer kills him, but not before alerting them to the fact that the Knave is accompanying her, causing the Queen to have a small reaction shot, reasons which become apparent with the Knave’s origins.

Alice and her companion return to the site of the stolen bottle and discover the White Rabbit unearthing the vessel, something that we the audience learned in the previous episode. Learning about it beforehand lessened the impact, something that would have better kept concealed until now. I’m guessing the writers were trying to establish the Queen’s power play against Jafar, but that could have been easily done by her presenting it without the Rabbit being included in the scene.

The most interesting part of the episode by far was the flashback. Sean Maguire makes an crossover appearance from Once Upon a Time as Robin Hood accompanied with his Merry Men, stealing from the rich to give to the poor in the Enchanted Forest. Here we discover the petty thief Will Scarlet, the Knave of Hearts’ true identity. After convincing the band of thieves to pillage Maleficent’s castle for gold, he steals a magical artifact with a warning that keeping the artifact will only bring misery. When Robin finds of Will’s treachery, he simply lets him go, as it is “the cruelest thing [he] can do.” He brings the item–a looking glass–back to Anastasia, who is revealed to be the Red Queen. Using the glass, they jump into the magical world of Wonderland. The whole using the looking glass thing makes Anastasia seem like Alice herself,

The episode begins with a young boy (who goes by the name of Thomas Grey) in medieval garb who is playing by himself when a little girl dressed in all white shows herself to him and lures him away from the safe confines of his home. She promptly disappears and all of a sudden a horseman begins chasing the boy into the outskirts of Sleepy Hollow.

When Ichabod and Abbie come across this boy (who has already been picked up by paramedics), he mutters something that the former realises is Old English, which later on sounds suspiciously similar to German. As he is being sent off to the hospital, black veins travel up and around his body, which later passes on to nearby victims who see the Horseman coming for them before dying. The two do more research on the horseman that the boy tells them about and learn that it is the Horseman of Pestilence Conquest that is trying to join the Horseman of Death.

As more people gradually become sick, Ichabod and Abbie retrace Thomas’ steps, they discover the Lost Colony of Roanoke, where all the inhabitants have the same black veins as Thomas, though none of them display any signs of sickness. When questioned about this, the chieftain declares that it is the spirit of Virginia Dare protecting them from the horseman that plagues them. As Ichabod returns to the hospital with Abbie, he discovers that he has contracted the illness and is sedated to keep from freaking out.

During his stupor, he temporarily reunites with his wife Katrina. She laments that she did not call out to him, and for him to be here otherwise would mean that he was dead, “or close to it.” She explains to him that they are both in Purgatory, where Moloch oversees all and decides whether the souls in this realm deserve absolution or damnation. If my theology is correct, that’s not what happens in Purgatory. Purgatory, as the name implies, is a place where a soul can find redemption and move into heaven, Before it can do so, it must purge itself of all the sins it has accumulated.

Anyway, he wakes up and Abbie manages to convince Captain Irving to sneak Ichabod and the boy back to the lost colony, being chased by Conquest. They make it to the town’s small reservoir and Ichabod jumps into it with Thomas. Just as Conquest catches up with them, it dematerialises and it’s revealed that Thomas and the rest of the clan are dead all along, explaining the antiquated clothing and language. Of course, that raises questions about how other people can see and contract Thomas’ illness; I guess we can say that magic did it.

Meanwhile, there seems to be a subplot building around Abbie’s ex-boyfriend, Luke Morales, who’s trying to dig into Ichabod’s background, even though it’s apparent to us viewers. An interesting thing to note is that Ichabod’s cover is well maintained, as evidenced when Luke calls Oxford University and is told that an Ichabod Crane does exist and “is currently on loan to the Sleepy Hollow police department.”

In my post reviewing this series’ pilot episode, I mentioned how the order of the Horsemen appearing have been thrown around. A thing that irked me in this episode was the colour pairing of the horsemen. If you’re familiar with the mythos, it should be like this, in the order which they are supposed to appear in the Book of Revelations:

With the success that is the hit ABC series OnceUpon a Time, the creators had decided to do a spinoff series that tells the tale of a well-known girl who followed a rabbit down a hole into a mysterious land. Alice is portrayed by Sophie Lowe and her companion the Knave of Hearts is played by Michael Socha. I’ll try and get a review for the second episode up soon.

Mushrooms that make you get big? They’re back. Source: Wikipedia

This incarnation of Alice is an adolescent (young adult) who has been to Wonderland multiple times to bring back proof to her father that it is real. Along the way she discovers an old bottle that contains a genie by the name of Cyrus hailing from the land of Agrabah. With him, they go on many adventures, culminating in a confrontation with the Red Queen (played by Emma Rigby) at the Boiling Sea where she tosses Cyrus off the cliff.

Dismayed, Alice returns to “our” world and is institutionalised and is set to be undergoing an operation that looks suspiciously like a frontal lobotomy. Just as she resigns herself to the surgery, the Knave bursts in and proclaims that Cyrus is still alive, whereupon she opens a can of whoop-ass on the orderlies, further distancing the idea that heroines are not action-oriented.

After she and the Knave jump back into Wonderland, we can see how creative and punny the world is; the Mallow Marsh and the dragon flies (that spew fire!). Granted, it does seem a bit too technicolour, but then again, it is Wonderland, where anything is possible.

As the Knave and Alice leave the marsh, the Knave refuses to travel with her any further as he’s become a very unpopular character that warranted a bounty on his head. Alice decides to bribe him with 1 of 3 red stones that she’s hidden in her shoe that turn out to be the physical manifestation of her wishes, to which the Knave wonders out loud why she can’t just use one of them to bring Cyrus back immediately. She replies and states that the bigger the wish, the likelier it is something will go terribly wrong, thereby prolonging the series and rightfully so. The White Rabbit then declares that Cyrus was last seen at the Mad Hatter’s place. Alice then decides to climb up a tall tree, leaving her wishes down with the Knave. Up there, she meets the Cheshire Cat, who has grown to large proportions and wants to eat Alice. She jumps down and discovers the Knave missing with her wishes. After a bit of adequate combat, she is pinned down and about to be snacked on when the Knave returns, throwing one side of a mushroom into the Cat’s mouth, shrinking it back to normal size and fulfilling the “I saved you just in time!” trope. It turns out that he can’t use the wishes, as they’re not his, and so he is stuck with Alice on her quest to find Cyrus.

Meanwhile, we learn that the White Rabbit is actually in cahoots with the Red Queen, and that she is in an unholy alliance with Jafar (played by Naveen Andrews, who you may remember from Lost), who is the one that holds Cyrus captive and brought Alice back so that she would use all of her 3 wishes so that the genie would be unbound from her.

This new series so far is promising, though Sophie Lowe seems a little wooden. Michael Socha as the sardonic tag-along brings reluctance contrary to Alice’s determination, becoming a nice foil around her. I haven’t made my mind about this show yet, but I hope it get renewed for a second season.

I was very impressed with this episode and it handled the subject matter much better than the one about the school shooting. For one, the episode begins with Kurt’s voiceover about how they’ve had held Finn’s funeral and that he’s gone. No mention of how he died, just that he did. Granted, even I too am curious to the manner of how it happened, but as Kurt says, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances; we should be celebrating the life he had and how he changed everyone else’s. Despite this frankness, I think it takes away from the closure that a lot of fans wanted. They’ve had to do very few takes, as both cast and crew were incredibly emotional while filming during production.

The episode was broken down into several sections to give certain characters enough screentime to display their feeling.

Boxing Finn’s possessions. Kurt, Burt, and Carole are slowly sorting away Finn’s belongings for charity or for keeping. There are a few call-backs to some earlier episodes in the series, such as the football from the first football game they won and the lamp that Finn and Burt had an angry outburst over. Kurt picks up Finn’s letterman jacket and decides to keep it as Burt talks about how he regrets not being as close as he could have been.

I should’ve given him more hugs. We’d fist-bump or we’d high-five. But I should’ve given him more hugs.

-Burt Hummel

The memorial tree. At the beginning of the hour, Kurt buys a tree at a cheap price and Sue plants it in the spot where Quinn and Finn made out for the first time, only to learn that someone had dug it up and stolen it. At first it just seems rather selfish of Puck to desecrate a tribute to Finn, but then after the brief spat with Kurt in front of the Dumpster that he was thrown into during the pilot the act becomes rationalised when Puck argues that while Kurt has an entire room to remember Finn by, he has nothing and even demands the letterman jacket under the belief that Kurt will ruin it. Kurt refuses.
He later has a sit-down with Coach Beiste and he confesses that Finn was the guy who would always steer him in the right direction. After some more consoling, he agrees to put the tree back and decides to go off into the Army. In terms of looks and roughness, I can see this as a path for Puck.

If I start crying, I don’t think I’ll ever stop.

-Noah Puckerman

Santana’s persistent breakdown. Over the course of the episode Santana interrupts a few of the songs with her leaving or breaking down halfway through her song. When Kurt finally confronts her, she breaks down and admits that she wanted to surprise everyone by saying nice things about Finn (which she rarely, if ever, did) but just couldn’t go through with it in the end. Kurt consoles her and asks her to say it to him right there and she eventually gives in. He leaves afterwards, but not before giving her the letterman jacket.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Finn dying, it’s that shame is a wasted emotion.

-Kurt Hummel

Sue dealing with Finn while holding the school together. Sue is as crass as ever in this episode, Even so, she tells Will and Emma to get it together and help the students out in any way, not to mention planting the aforementioned memorial tree. Also, when Santana rushes out the first time and discovers new Cheerios! putting out the candles, she storms into the new principal’s office and demands to know why she told them to do so, Sue calmly responds that they posed a fire hazard and barely reacted when Santana shoved her. When Santana comes back to apologise, Sue reveals that she feels devastated that Finn died thinking that she was a cruel person and that he would have made a good teacher.

He was such a good guy. I’ll never get to tell him. There’s no lesson here. There’s no happy ending. There’s just nothing. He’s just gone.

-Sue Sylvester

Will holding it in together until the very end. Halfway through the episode Will walks in on Emma just as she finishes “consoling” Tina, and she remarks that after almost a month, he hasn’t mourned at all. He brushes it off and continues about teaching the glee club. He also discovers Santana putting up wanted posters for Finn’s letterman jacket and implies Puck had stolen it–a rather low move for any teacher to make. At the very end, Emma walks back into her and Will’s apartment and finds him sobbing into the garment.

The next episode, “A Katy or a Gaga,” will be aired on November 7th, 2013.